Lions split last week’s district baseball outings
By Sam Waller
The Albany Lions baseball team had one comeback fall short but completed another last week in splitting their two District 8-2A outings.
The Lions lost 13-11 to third-ranked Anson on Tuesday, March 29 on the road, then beat Cisco 7-2 on Friday, April 1 at home.
The Lions (8-3 overall, 3-1 district) completed the first half of district play Wednesday, April 6 at Hawley in a game postponed one day because of wet field conditions. Details will be reported next week.
The entire district is taking an open date on Friday, April 8, because of the District 10-2A track meet. Albany will open the second half of district at 5:00 p.m. Tuesday, April 12 by hosting Stamford.
At Anson, the Lions trailed 10-2 after four innings as the Tigers hit three home runs. Albany rallied to take an 11-10 lead with four runs in the fifth and five in the sixth.
“We had chances to drop our heads and get 10-runned,” coach David Fairchild said. “But these kids battled and came through with some big hits for some big innings.”
The Tigers thwarted the upset bid with three runs in the bottom of the sixth and held on as the Lions brought the tying run to the plate in the seventh.
Luke Ivy and Cole Read each had two hits and three RBIs to lead the offense. Cooper Fairchild and Bryce Herring each added two hits.
Zane Waggoner homered with a man on in the sixth and the Lions took the lead on Read’s two-run single.
Albany used five pitchers in the game, three in the sixth inning. Starter Cole Chapman failed to get out of the second inning, giving up six runs on four hits. Caden Price was charged with the loss, allowing two runs on a hit.
“The weather conditions weren’t ideal, and we struggled on the mound,” said the coach. “We gave up a lot of walks and hit batters. There were some mistakes that maybe we’ll learn from.”
Against Cisco, Read drove in two runs and pitched 6.2 strong innings as the Lions overcame an early deficit.
“I’ve told the kids we’re always going to be in the game as long as we’ve got good pitching,” David Fairchild said. “Cole did a good job, had a lot of control and hit his spots.”
Cisco led 1-0 in the third before Albany pulled even. The Lions took the lead for good in the fourth when Waggoner tripled and scored on Chapman’s sacrifice fly. Albany broke the game open with four runs in the fifth.
Cason Fairchild went 2 for 3 with an RBI as six Lions drove in runs.
On the mound, Read gave up two runs, one earned, on four hits. He walked one and struck out six before Chapman recorded the final out.
Execution on bunts proved crucial. Two squeeze attempts by Cisco resulted in outs at the plate. In the second, a safety squeeze ended in a double play. Failure to get a suicide bunt down in the fourth resulted in the runner caught stealing.
Meanwhile Ivy bunted for a single to load the bases in the fourth to help build a run and dropped a suicide squeeze in the fifth.
“Luke did a good job of getting that suicide down,” the coach said. “He had a perfect bunt for the base hit.”
Junior Varsity
The Lions JV team held leads in two games that were shortened by weather.
At Anson, Albany led 3-0 when play was stopped after one inning. The Lions led Cisco 6-2 in the third when the game was called because of lightning.
Against the Loboes, Lanxton Viertel, Laithe Leech, Tyler Chapman, and Brody Brown had base hits.
“Tyler Chapman and Laithe Leech were on the mound and did a good job,” David Fairchild said.
ANSON 13, ALBANY 11
SCORE BY INNING 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R/H/E
albany 1 1 0 0 4 5 0 11/13/2
anson 5 1 2 2 0 3 x 13/10/4
atbat runs hits RBI
Lefevre 2b 5 0 0 0
CoFairchild cf 3 3 2 0
Waggoner p 3 1 1 2
CChapman ss 4 1 1 1
Price rf 5 1 1 0
CaFairchild 3b 5 2 2 0
Ivy lf 4 2 2 3
Read 1b 4 0 2 3
Herring dh 4 0 2 1
Totals 37 11 13 10
2B – Herring, Read. HR – Waggoner. HBP – CoFairchild. SB – Price 2, CoFairchild, Russell.
IP H R ER BB SO
CChapman 1.2 4 6 5 3 1
Read 2 5 4 2 1 0
Price 1.1 1 2 2 2 1
CoFairchild 0 0 1 1 2 0
Waggoner 1 0 0 0 1 2
WP – CChapman 3, Read 2, Price, CoFairchild. HBP – Price, Waggoner. Balk – Waggoner.
ALBANY 7, CISCO 2
SCORE BY INNING 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R/H/E
CISCO 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 2/4/3
ALBANY 0 0 1 2 4 0 x 7/7/2
atbat runs hits RBI
Lefevre 2b 4 1 0 0
CoFairchild cf 4 1 1 1
Waggoner 1b 2 1 1 0
CChapman p 1 1 0 1
Price rf 3 2 1 1
CaFairchild 3b 3 0 2 1
Ivy lf 2 0 1 1
Read ss 1 0 1 2
TChapman dh 3 0 0 0
Totals 23 7 7 7
3B – Waggoner. S – Ivy. SF – Read, CChapman. CS – Lefevre
IP H R ER BB SO
Read 6.2 4 2 1 1 6
CChapman 0.1 0 0 0 0 1
WP – Read.
